- 1 year ago
A political firestorm has erupted over West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s comments following a gang rape case, where she questioned why the student was out late at night. On this special report, with host Preeti Choudhry, BJP's Sanju Verma, TMC supporter Monujeet Mondal, and political commentator Shikha Mukherjee debate the CM's history of controversial statements on crimes against women. 'Mamata Banerjee is a repeat offender,' alleges BJP National Spokesperson Sanju Verma. The discussion revisits past incidents, including the Park Street rape case, which Banerjee allegedly called a 'fabricated incident'. While the TMC defends the government's police action and counters with crimes in BJP-ruled states, Mukherjee provides analysis on the deeply entrenched patriarchal mindset that influences such reactions from political leaders across India.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Joining me this evening is Monujit Mondal, TMC supporter, political analyst,
00:04Shikha Mukherjee, political commentator, Sanju Verma, national spokesperson, Bharatiya Janata
00:09Party. Thank you for all three of you for joining us. I'll give three of you two minutes time to
00:13put your point forward. I'd like to begin with Shikha Mukherjee. And Shikha Mukherjee, the fact
00:17is, you know, if this was a one-off, one could say that this was misconstrued and she was possibly
00:23quoted out of context, which she clarified. This is not a one-off. We've seen multiple times in
00:29the past where incidents like gang rape or rape happens and one can halfway all the way back to
00:35the Park Street rape victim, where Mamata Banerjee has used language which has been a little unsavory,
00:41to say the least. Mamata Banerjee, there are two issues here. One is that Mamata Banerjee displays
00:51whenever there is a tight corner, politically tight corner, she tends to display a peculiar reaction
01:01which is alarmingly similar to people who, frankly speaking, belong to a generation even older than
01:12one of them. Which is the same as about Mamata Banerjee's generation, which is that the victim is
01:18somehow to blame. In other words, and the problem is that if Mamata Banerjee had stopped by say,
01:28you know, 1230, why did she need to go out? She should not have gone out. Whatever it is that she said,
01:34maybe that is a kind of knee-jerk protective statement from someone who is my generation.
01:46But she followed it up by saying that women need to behave in ways where they can keep themselves safe.
01:54sorry, sorry, that is ridiculous. Women don't have to behave in any specific ways. And you're absolutely
02:04right, Preeti. If it were a young boy of maybe 20 who goes out at 1230 at night, he's unlikely to be
02:15sexually assaulted. And he is not being, he may be cautioned by everybody to play safe by not going
02:24out late. But you know, taking care of himself is something that people really don't tell him,
02:31advise him to do. And that is a peculiar reaction which Mamata Banerjee has repeatedly demonstrated
02:42from the Park Street case, as you said. And again, now, and why is it that-
02:48Ma'am, I'll come to you. You know, your two minutes are up, we put a timer to it,
02:52and I'll circle back to you. I want to bring in Sanju Verma, and then I'll go across to Manujit
02:56Mondal. Sanju Verma, the fact is, incidents like rape, incidents like gang rape can happen in any state.
03:01It's how quickly the state government reacts to it and takes charge. In this case, the state government
03:07has reacted. There are five accused that have already been arrested. We can go back to the
03:12Arjikor Institute and the gang rape that happened there and murder. In that, you know, once you look
03:19back, it's actually the Kolkata police that did a better job than, and did it in the first few days
03:25of it itself. So, in that context, it's not that the West Bengal police is not doing their job, the
03:32administration is not doing their job. Even in this, the minute the explanation by the cabinet
03:37minister was Sanju Verma, the minute she figured that she was being misconstrued as what is being
03:42perceived, she came and clarified that she didn't mean anything like that.
03:48Preeti, let me make one thing very clear. Mamata Banerji is a repeat offender. Mamata Banerji is a
03:55habitual offender. Each time she makes insensitive statements, the entire cabal of Prindamul Congress
04:02comes out and says, oh, you know, Mamata didi was misinterpreted. Oh, you know, Mamata didi was
04:08misconstrued. Oh, you know, Mamata Banerji meant something else, but the media understood something
04:15quite different. No, Mamata Banerji is incompetent. Mamata Banerji is insensitive. Mamata Banerji has failed
04:24rape victims repeatedly, and what a shame. These kind of misogynistic statements coming from a
04:31woman chief minister, no less. Your audience needs to listen to this, Preeti. After the Park Street
04:38gang rape in 2012, I remember clearly, I was not in politics then, but I followed the case closely,
04:45and I remember Mamata Banerji saying, women who go to discotheques, go clubbing, consume alcohol,
04:52have multiple partners, they invite rape upon themselves. Again, in the Hansakhali gang rape,
05:00where a 14-year-old minor was raped by a TMC MLS son, I remember Mamata Banerji saying,
05:07how do we know whether this was indeed a rape or whether the girl was having an affair? It was a
05:19love affair gone wrong, or maybe she was pregnant, so she chose to make reckless allegations. These are
05:24the kind of insensitive statements coming from Mamata Banerji, and now she has the audacity to say,
05:32why did the girl venture out after 12 AM? Why did the girl go out in a forested area? Why did the girl
05:39not protect herself? She had said similar stuff during the RGKR rape, and also during the South
05:47Law College Kolkata gang rape. So, Mamata Banerji, resign if you can.
05:51All right, ma'am, your time is up. I'll come back to you. Manujit Mondal, you've been shaking your head
05:55every time we had Ms. Mukherjee speak or Sanju Verma speak. But the fact is for what it stands, sir.
06:02One might argue about competence because actually the West Bengal police has been very competent in
06:08dealing with the crimes. What one needs to question constantly is the misogyny of it and the statements
06:14that have been made. Because it's not the first time, like I said, one can go all the way back to
06:18Park Street. The Chief Minister strangely has, you know, made it, you know, in the kind of commentary
06:26regarding these incidents, one would think steeped in misogyny.
06:32I think the Park Street comments have also been distorted. If you could show me any
06:38single bite of the Chief Minister during that point of time. I was also closely following
06:43the Park Street Rep case. She did not say what you are saying right now or Ms. Verma has said right
06:49now. We all know Ms. Verma is a repeat offender when it comes to, you know, play all the repeat
06:55records. So I do not need to dignify her comments. I think what Mamatadi was trying to say, she was
07:01trying to fix accountability on the part of the college. I mean, I am asking this question to you
07:06and to all others. Had it been a government-run institution, would you not ask the question to
07:13this institution? That what have you been doing? What protection you are giving to your girl child
07:18or even the boys? In a hostel, she is a hostelite for God's sake. Both the boy and the girl, they were
07:24hostelites. There would be some, some sense of discipline in the hostel that after a certain point
07:29of time, you are not supposed to go. Or even if you go out, even if you go out, you need to inform
07:34the authorities. That doesn't mean that if you go out, you should be, you should be getting raped.
07:39That's not the question. I think Mamatadi herself has made it amply clear in the same
07:43statement. Mind you, in Bengali, I'm not going by the English, you know, press that she had in
07:48Dhamdham airport. I will go by the Bengali, you know, press that she had said. She has categorically
07:53stated to us, meaning the hostelites, including the girls, especially the girls. We also, you know,
07:58studied in a hostel. We also stayed in a hostel and we had some, some discipline still there. Even in,
08:04I'm sitting in the campus right now. And after, after 9pm, the girls are not supposed to go out.
08:09So what's wrong? And that doesn't mean that, like my, my good friend Shrikhaidu was saying,
08:13she did not talk about the women per se. She didn't talk about the women at lunch. She was talking about
08:19girls who are in the BSC, you know, studying in UG1 or 21, 22 years of well, because since they are
08:24staying in the hostel, the hostel authorities, the college authorities must have some responsibility.
08:30In overlooking, overseeing what they are doing and where they are going.
08:34Sir, your time is, yeah, your time is up. But the fact is, I think Shikha, you wouldn't
08:40doubt Shikha Mukherjee's Bengali. You know, you can doubt my Bengali, you can possibly doubt Sanju
08:44Arma's Bengali. But I would think, sir, one second, hear me out. Shikha Mukherjee's, she herself
08:50detailed what the chief minister said. She herself also detailed what was deeply problematic in not just
08:57this statement. There have been multiple statements. And let's put out all the graphics
09:01there. Because it's not once. If it was once, you can question that maybe she didn't, you know,
09:06she was misconstrued. She didn't mean to say it. Even in this, she follows it up where she puts the
09:12onus on the survivor now and not on what happened. Similar kind of statements would have not been made
09:20if this was a buoyant question. I give all three of you two minutes each. I want to bring in Shikha
09:25Mukherjee first, ma'am, two minutes. Because, you know, with all the regional pride that Mamata
09:31Banerjee portrays, you know, the whole package of Mamata Banerjee practically flies in the face
09:39of comments like this. It does tend to fly in the face of comments like this. But, you know,
09:48I'll correct Ma'am just for one issue. In the Park Street rape case, what Mamata Banerjee said was
09:59that it was a staged incident. And that is on record. So, yes, she tends to display a peculiarly
10:10patriarchal, orthodox view of how women need to conduct themselves when they are out in the,
10:21you know, either as students or they're out in the evenings or wherever they are. But let me also say
10:28that this is a kind of patriarchal orthodoxy, which is the standard reaction across all of India.
10:39It's not that Mamata Banerjee is the only wrongdoer. But having said that, to get back to the point that you
10:50raised, why Mamata Banerjee's knee-jerk reaction, I remember saying this before, her knee-jerk reaction
11:00suggests that she is steeped in this patriarchy. She has been socialized within this patriarchy
11:06and tends to react in a very defensive way about something, an incident like this, which involves
11:13crimes against women. Now, the problem is that everyone's expectation from the new generation
11:22of leaders in India is that they will not be steeped. They will at least try and disguise
11:30their personal views, which is that they are extremely patriarchal in their attitude towards women.
11:36The other thing is that Mamata Banerjee cannot really step back. She cannot walk back
11:43from what she has already said. She will have to figure out a better way of handling things.
11:50Right. Mam, your time is up. Two minutes. Sanju Verma, please go ahead and make your final comments.
11:55You know, Preeti, first and foremost, the West Bengal police is also culpable. Let's not forget
12:01that the former police commissioner of Kolkata, a man called Vineet Goyal, had to apologize to the
12:07Kolkata High Court because he named, he revealed the identity of the RG Kar rape and medical rape and
12:14murder victim at a live press conference. Can you imagine a police and that too, a senior IPS officer
12:22being so careless, so careless, so irresponsible. Did Mamata Banerjee sack Vineet Goyal? No. Vineet Goyal today
12:30heads the Bengal police's special task force on law and order. So Mamata Banerjee does not reward merit.
12:39Mamata Banerjee rewards irresponsible behavior. That is my point number one. But point number two is,
12:46Mamata Banerjee is not just the chief minister, but the de facto home minister of West Bengal and she has
12:53failed on both fronts. My point number three is this. Beat Nandigram, Jalpayegudi, Uttar Dinajpur,
13:01Bardhwan, Birbhum, Kooch Bihar. Why have I named these places? These are places where in 2023 and 2024,
13:09women, they could be TMC supporters or BJP supporters or completely apolitical, they were
13:16disrobed and paraded naked in full public glare. And the lady you had on your show before the debate
13:24started, Shashi Panja, who's the Women and Child Development Minister of West Bengal. This video
13:30of hers is viral on social media even today. After the Jalpayeguri incident where a woman was paraded
13:35naked, Shashi Panja shamelessly said, abhi kapde utar gaye, to utar gaye, hua to hua. RG
13:44kar rape, Mamata Banerjee said, hua to hua. Law college gang rape, three months back,
13:49Mamata Banerjee said, hua to hua. Mamata Banerjee needs to be removed. And I'm sure the West Bengal
13:55janta will do that in 2026. Ma'am, your time is up. Two minutes, Mr. Mondal, make your point.
13:59The Bridge Bhushan, whose son is now MP, everyone knows what he did. The Bilkis Banu gang rape cases,
14:07who carlanded them. The Benares in the university rape cases, where the perpetrators were seen now
14:13with none other than the prime minister, Manipur. How many times you want to say this? That doesn't
14:18mean that this case is justified. The fact remained, and I want to go back to Park Street rape case. And
14:25Shikha Di, you remember, were again selectively quoting Mamata Di. What happened initially? Two
14:31innocent persons were arrested. Because the victim could not identify the perpetrator.
14:37So you have to go back to the context of why this kind of statement was mentioned. Though I don't
14:43clearly remember what was statement from Mamata Banerjee, that the two other people, the people
14:47were not even present in Calcutta at that point of time, they were arrested initially by the police.
14:51So that's why that particular comment came out, perhaps. But the fact remained that is the same
14:57Sir, I'm going to hold you there. One second, just hold the timer. Are you justifying? One second,
15:01because the victim, A, could be in trauma, could not identify the perpetrators of the crime. Are you
15:07justifying the statement on national television? Because I take personal affront to it, sir.
15:11The circumstances wise, sir, that people were doubting, not just the politicians, even the police
15:18officers were doubting whether the case was genuine or not. Please remember that. The fact remains that
15:23the same police, same Mamata Banerjee's police has had, had seen the case for a logical conclusion.
15:29In Kamdini Rafe cases also, the same Mamata Banerjee's police, I know, had seen the case to the logical
15:34conclusion. What is your CBI doing? What have you done for other cases? Nothing. You talk about
15:39Vineet Gowell. It is Mr. Vineet Gowell under whose investigation, the same Kolkata police has,
15:44you know, given them the justice. Not CBI. CBI is still looking for justice in these particular cases.
15:49So please, and even in case of law college cases, it is the same Kolkata police, despite the political,
15:53you know, the identity of the perpetrators, they are still languishing in jail. Please do not lecture
15:59us on, you know, crime against women. Please look within. What have you done? You are rewarding the
16:03people like Birg Bhushan and others. We have removed him, but his son is an MP right now. So please,
16:09I mean, for God's sake, do not politicize rape. Rape is actually, I think, the result of a deeply
16:15nauseating patriarchal mindset. And this is happening everywhere.
16:18Okay, sir, your time is up. You know, I am, I think, I thank all three of our panelists for joining us.
16:23I am, I am appalled that you said what you did because of what the victim then, maybe in trauma,
16:30could not identify the perpetrators of the crime. And you actually said that is why the statement came out.
16:35This is exactly the mindset that we were speaking of right on the show, sir. We're going to let it rest
16:41for now. Thank you, our panelists for joining us.